Atomic Swap between BTC and LTC

22.11.2017

Everyone has troubles with it. You suddenly need Litecoin, because Bitcoin transactions are very expensive and the like. You do not want to register on the exchange, the Litecoin slot machine is out of reach or you just do not have an instant access to Litecoin. Therefore, there is “atomic swap”. Which is the exchange of cryptocurrency without the inclusion of third parties (most often exchange office, exchange). And due to the non-inclusion of these third parties, atomic swap is more or less safe. Thus, if this succeeds, it is a significant novelty in the world of cryptocurrencies.

Atomic swaps have taken place several times, but the disadvantage was that they were so-called “on-chain”and were demanding for the “average” user because they required to have both blockchains of the respective currencies downloaded. This time, the most up-to-date atomic swap has taken place “off-chain”. The advantages of this off-chain are that they are immediate, solve the “average user” problems, have low fees, and protect user privacy better. And privacy is one of many interesting things, therefore, we can see interest in cryptocurrencies like Monero, Stealthcoin and others. That is why off-chain offers anonymity. This is provided by the fact that the transactions do not leave any trace on their blockchain.

How far it is a revolutionary move is still a mystery. Changelly’ CEO, who is currently engaged in the exchange of certain cryptocurrencies, declared publicly that: “Changelly is a centralised exchange office that handles a high number of transactions at the fairiest price. We are interested in the idea of atomic off-chain swaps as a new step providing risk-free p2p OTC (contracts without the official institution protection) contracts. However, this system cannot completely replace the existing system.”

The Litecoin’s founder, Charlie Lee, has the largest share in the existence of the atomic swap. He is very active on Twitter, so we can only recommend. He has just made the atomic swap of Litecoin with Bitcoin, Vertcoin and Decred. What does atomic swap functionality mean? In particular, the promotion of decentralised exchanges, which are widely demanded by the general public. Therefore, it is in place to monitor the whole situation around atomic swap.